This Late Night Comedy Wasn't Funny

I've seen some bad baseball in my life, but the Mets reached a new low on Monday night.

It was a 2-2 game with the Dodgers in Los Angeles in the 11th inning, with two outs and Ryan Church on first. Angel Pagan hits a ball into the right field alley for his fourth hit, and Church motored his way home for what appears to be a 3-2 lead (pictured).

But the Dodgers appealed at third, and Church was called out. Ron Darling, on SNY, noted that as soon as Church crossed the plate, he looked back at third, as if he knew he missed the bag. (SNY's replay was inconclusive, and they showed just one angle, from field level.) The Mets didn't protest, so you knew he missed it. Church should be fined and benched for making such a grievous miscue.

But it got even worse. After Brian Stokes walked the first batter, a fly ball to left center was totally butchered by Pagan, who kept calling for the ball, but at the exact last second, he moved away and the ball fell behind him and Carlos Beltran, and they gave Beltran a two-base error.

Then after an intentional walk and a short fly to left, a grounder hit right to Jeremy Reed at first was thrown away at home, as his throw missed Ramon Castro by five feet. (Granted, Reed is an inexperienced first baseman, but that play has to be made.)

Dodgers win, 3-2. The Mets made five errors last night, and that inning brought back some really awful memories of those bad Mets teams of the late 1970s for me. Church's bonehead play stands out, because had the Mets scored that run, Francisco Rodriguez would have been in the game instead of Stokes (although he wasn't to blame for that mess), and who knows how the bottom of the eleventh would have gone.